The Kangaroo Mother Method offers incredible benefits for the premature baby, improving its development and even reducing the stay in the hospital. Find out what it is like and what it is for.
In these cases, when delivery occurs early or it is necessary to intervene earlier than expected and bring the baby to light, it is when premature newborns need their mother’s contact and unmatched protection to move forward.
The progress that has been made with neonatology has been enormous and today premature babies are much more likely to survive, since the means are adequate and exhaustive to guarantee the life of the little one.
When a premature baby is brought into the world, its nest to continue its development will be the incubator, this device helps the little one to give it security, isolate it from the environment to avoid contracting infections, maintains and regulates its body temperature, causing the newborn in a short time born comes out of the weak or critical state in which it was born.
But what about contact with his parents while the little one is in the incubator? There was a time when these little ones spent the remaining time of development in the incubator without being able to go outside and avoiding contact with their parents.
However, as we mentioned in the previous article, the Kangaroo Mother Program has developed the Kangaroo Mother Method. But what is the Kangaroo Mother Program? And the Method? We talk to you about it.
What is the Kangaroo Mother Program?
The Kangaroo Mother Program originated in 1978 at the San Juan de Dios Hospital in Bogotá by doctors Edgar Rey and Martínez, who began a care program for premature babies by placing them skin-to-skin between the mothers’ breasts.
Thanks to the pediatricians of the Maternal and Child Institute, Hector Martínez and Luis Navarrete, the program was consolidated after five years and was baptized as the “Mother Kangaroo Program”. Later, a group of researchers would propose the Kangaroo Foundation (NGO led by health professionals, with the mission of humanizing neonatology through the application of the Kangaroo Mother Method), and from there the scientific evaluation of the Kangaroo Program would begin. Infant Maternal Institute.
The Kangaroo Mother Program, as we have explained, consists of the activities carried out on the mother and the premature baby, in this case the contact that is fed skin to skin, with the support of a trained and specific medical staff, always within specialized centers. Like hospitals.
The term “program” is included in the definition because it denotes a series of specific actions with the aim of reducing the mortality of premature infants and compensating for the lack of incubators.
The term “mother” is essential in the program since it is the mother of the child who actively collaborates in skin-to-skin contact with her child.
And the term “kangaroo” refers to mammals that carry their young in the bag after birth, so that in turn mothers carry out the same action by carrying their babies close to their body.
Kangaroo mother intervention is defined as organized and systematic activities following the “kangaroo mother method”. This method is the system that is exerted on children with low birth weight or premature births, causing skin-to-skin contact with their mother.
The activities that complement the kangaroo mother method have to be breastfeeding, whenever possible, and early exit in the kangaroo position, supporting from the beginning that the parents and more in this case the mother is the exclusive and potential caregiver from the beginning. First moment.
And the Kangaroo Mother Method?
It consists of a contact between the mother and her little one, placing it on her chest so that the baby begins to recognize his mother’s voice, the warmth of her skin, and listen to her heart, thus facilitating experiences outside the womb.
What are its benefits?
Thanks to doctors, the Kangaroo Mother Method helps somatosensory stimulation, favoring and strengthening the emotional ties between mother and child. During the mother’s contact with the baby, the baby’s physiological variables remain constant, breathing is deep and regular, body temperature is optimal, and the heart pumps faster.
This method gets mothers to take care of their premature babies much earlier than expected, and even shortens the hospital stay. The benefits of the contact that is established between mother and child are infinite, since there is nothing more flattering and satisfying than the close relationship established between the two.
